Wake-Up Server

1. A method performed by a wake-up server for reestablishing an agent device, the method comprising: receiving, at the wake-up server, an indication that an agent device will be suspended, the indication including at least one criterion for reestablishing the agent device, wherein the at least one criterion specifies that at least one result message should be received from at least one support server; receiving, at the wake-up server, at least one result message from the at least one support server, wherein the result message includes a response to at least one request message previously sent by the agent device to the at least one support server; determining that the at least one criterion has been met based on receiving the at least one result message; and in response to determining that the at least one criterion has been met, reestablishing the agent device.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting the at least one result message to the agent device.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising authenticating the at least one result message.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one criterion includes an indication of a timeout value, wherein the timeout value is a time after which the agent device should be re-initialized, and the step of determining that the at least one criterion has been met further comprises determining that a current time is after the timeout value.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of reestablishing the agent device comprises: allocating system resources for use by the agent device; and configuring the system resources to store information specified by a device image.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising locating the device image based on information carried by the indication.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the agent device and wake-up server each include at least one processor that belongs to a cloud computing architecture.

8. A method performed by an agent device for releasing system resources, the method comprising: transmitting, by the agent device to a support server, a request message; transmitting, by the agent device to a wake-up server, an indication that resources associated with the agent device will be released, wherein the indication includes at least one criterion for reestablishing the agent device; transmitting, by the agent device to the support server, an instruction to transmit a result message associated with the request message to the wake-up server; and releasing the system resources associated with the agent device.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising: generating a device image based on information stored by the system resources; and storing the device image at a location accessible by the wake-up server.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the at least one criterion specifies that the wake-up server should receive the result message from the support server.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the at least one criterion specifies that the wake-up server should receive result messages from two or more support servers.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the at least one criterion specifies a time after which resources should be reallocated for the agent device.

13. The method of claim 8 , further comprising, after system resources have been reallocated for the agent device, receiving the result message by the agent device from the wake-up server.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the instruction and the result message include a set of authentication information.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions for execution by a wake-up server for reestablishing an agent device, the medium comprising: instructions for receiving, at the wake-up server, an indication that an agent device will be suspended, the indication including at least one criterion for reestablishing the agent device, wherein the at least one criterion specifies that at least one result message should be received from at least one support server; instructions for receiving, at the wake-up server, at least one result message from the at least one support server, wherein the result message includes a response to at least one request message previously sent by the agent device to the at least one support server; instructions for determining that the at least one criterion has been met based on receiving the at least one result message; and instructions for, in response to determining that the at least one criterion has been met, reestablishing the agent device.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 , further comprising instructions for transmitting the at least one result message to the agent device.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 , further comprising instructions for authenticating the at least one result message.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the at least one criterion includes an indication of a timeout value, wherein the timeout value is a time after which the agent device should be re-initialized, and the instructions for determining that the at least one criterion has been met further comprise instructions for determining that a current time is after the timeout value.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the instructions for reestablishing the agent device comprise: instructions for allocating system resources for use by the agent device; and instructions for configuring the system resources to store information specified by a device image.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the agent device and wake-up server each include at least one processor that belongs to a cloud computing architecture.